1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to word processing and more particularly to queuing of several documents for printing and in a separate foreground print task.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous word processing systems have been developed for editing, processing and printing conventional alphanumeric text. In word processing, operator productivity is considerably enhanced, if the operator can submit several documents to be printed without waiting for the printing of each document to be completed, as generally occurs in the foreground task.
In large memory word processing systems, such as the IBM Displaywriter, printing is a background task which runs concurrently with typing tasks so that pages can be printed as the text is created or revised. In less expensive word processing systems, however, the available memory does not permit background printing concurrently with typing tasks. In such systems, documents must be printed by a separate printing task which is separately loaded into the memory after the typing tasks are complete. In systems in which typeing tasks an print tasks are not processed concurrently, but sequentially, a need arises for a method for queuing several documents to be printed as well as to permit the operator to interact with the document print queue during the printing process to submit additional documents, cancel documents previously submitted or change the order of any document to be printed.